The internet is one of the most transformative inventions of the past century — first proposed in 1989 and officially introduced by CERN in 1993. What began as a system linking documents with hyperlinks rapidly evolved into something more — search engines, social media, and now a space that AI may transform further still. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, explained in The Guardian why he chose to give his invention away for free. He said it was a necessity: without universal free access, the idea simply wouldn't have worked. If people had to pay for every search or upload, there would be nothing on the internet to make it worth using — so it had to be free to succeed. After making that decision, Berners-Lee was able to persuade CERN — the European nuclear research organization that hosted the world's first World Wide Web server — to donate his creation to the public domain. That is why the internet remains free to access to this day. Currently, while the internet is technically free by definition, Berners-Lee points out that users are no longer customers — they have become the product. Personal data is sold, and people are targeted with ads, misinformation, and manipulation. So while it's free in monetary terms, the real price is being paid in valuable personal data. Ref: Uniladtech